More than a game

There is a bold new frontier in social science research ““
but it involves computer games and robots rather than humans.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, like EverQuest
and The Sims Online, are gaining immense popularity worldwide and
pushing the envelope of fantasy escapism.

MMORPGs are virtual societies where thousands of people spend
countless hours having their fantasy characters do all the things
that people do in real society: They work, fight, and develop
relationships (character marriages are not uncommon in Everquest,
and there is sex in The Sims). But sometimes they just slay
dragons.

And many professors see virtual worlds as important and untapped
fields for sociological research.

Susanne Lohmann, a UCLA professor of political science,
estimates that about 10 million people worldwide are playing
MMORPGs. And Edward Castronova, an economics professor at
California State University, Fullerton, found that during the
summer of 2001, one-third of adults who played EverQuest spent more
time playing the game than working.

The games are so popular that the virtual items, character
profiles and currency that only exist in cyberspace have become hot
commodities on eBay. EBay category 1654 is entirely devoted to
Internet games.

“You can make about as much money on these games as
working at McDonald’s,” Lohmann said. “And a lot
of people would prefer to hang out with their virtual friends in a
virtual world.”

“That is something we should be studying,” she
said.

Certain parts of the academic community agree; and UCLA is
hosting a free public conference in the faculty center Friday on
playing, gaming, and learning.

It is also worth studying because game studies may have
important real-world applications in the near future, according to
researchers.

The FBI and CIA use simulations similar to virtual worlds to
model possible behaviors of terrorist cells.

Lohmann suggests games could also be extremely useful for online
education, which is becoming increasingly important as the world
tries to deal with the burgeoning demand for higher education.

UCLA’s Center for Human Complex Systems is exploring how
the success of the computer industry in appealing to cognition and
emotion might be applied to online education.

Lohmann suggested a program that puts students into morally
charged situations might be a better way to teach ethics than in a
traditional lecture class.

But Lohmann says game studies and human complex systems have
faced strong political opposition from traditional departments.

Human complex systems also suffer from a lack of funding, said
Dario Nardi, a member of the UCLA Human Complex Systems Center and
math professor.

As a result, game studies are taking off in professional schools
and private universities.

For example, the Annenburg School for Communication at the
University of Southern California, has recently hired several
faculty members specifically for their interest in
entertainment.

The Annenburg School funds a research program on entertainment
““ which includes Internet games such as The Sims online. The
program currently has eight faculty members, six doctoral students
and a number of undergraduates.

However, despite economic obstacles, the UCLA Center for Human
Complex Systems continues to explore the emerging field of game
studies.

Human complex systems is currently awaiting approval from the
Academic Senate to become a minor, but some of the professors who
are involved in HCS are already offering courses that look at
Internet computer games from social science perspectives.

The courses range from anthropology to computer programming.

This quarter, Nardi is teaching Honors Collegium 25, Artificial
Intelligence: Machines as People, People as Machines.

As part of the course, students program robots to interact with
each other, helping them look at everyday communication in a
structured, academic way.

Nardi says the two robots, named Truman and Olivia, function at
the level of “trainable pet frogs,” and can find
objects and react to simple commands.

When they program these robots’ behaviors, students must
examine their own knowledge, like how to describe a political party
and how to define whether something is good or evil.

Next quarter, Nardi will teach a class in which students will be
able to explore more complex situations in a virtual world he is
currently creating.

“I will take them through a process where they will create
their own culture,” Nardi said.

In that class, students will help create the set of
social-cultural rules that govern the simulated world, which will
teach students to see patterns in social interaction.

“It’s a great learning tool,” Nardi said.

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